Improvement in self-closing hatchways



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GAORG MLLER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO MARY E. MILDRUM, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT lN SELF-CLOSING HATCHWAVS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,459, dated September 29, 1874; application filed December 29, 1873.

declare that the following is a full, clear, and

exact description thereof, sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon,

Y which form a part of this specification, and in which the igure is a top-plan View of a hatch way, showing my invention secured thereto.

The novelty of my invention relates to a new and useful method of locking and holding together the sections of a selfclosing hatchway; and consists in the employment of automatic springs and catch-plates, the construction and operation of which will hereinafter be more fully shown and described.-

Referring to the drawing, S S represent the metallic springs, which Vare embedded in the ends of one section of the hatchway, and P P represent the catch plates, which are embedded in the ends of the section of the hatch way opposite that to which the springs are secured. These springs S S are automatic in their action, and are controlled and operated by the inner vertical plane of the moving frame-work of the elevator or car shown in my original patent, dated November 4C, l83, and numbered 144,350. Thevcar or elevator, in its ascent and descent, presses against the projecting knobs, (shown in dotted lines at x w,) and thereby releases the springs from the catch-plates P P', and allows the two sections of the hatchway to open and close with the upward or downward movement of the car. j sage of the car or elevatQLthrough/the hatchway the two sections of the same are brought together, and the springs S S, being relieved from the action of the car, fall back into the catch-plates P P', thereby locking or securing v the two sections of the hatchway together.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Let-v ters Patent, is

The combined arrangement of the straight flat spring-catches S S with knobs .fr x and catch-plates P P', let into the edges of the horizontal hatches D, all constructed and operating in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I hereunto subscribe my name in the presence of two witnesses.

GAORG MULLER. Witnesses:

J AMEs P. MGLEAN, J EssE FEYE. 

